1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved inexpensive chimney cap which is designed to shield the chimney from rain and wind while allowing gases and smoke to freely escape.
2. The Prior Art
Various chimney caps have been designed over the years. Such prior designs typically employ horizontal members overlying the chimney outlet. Although those designs kept out wind and rain, they severely altered the direction of the exiting smoke and gas and thus interfered with the chimney's natural draft. In addition, chimney caps in the prior art have tended to be unduly complex in design, thereby increasing manufacturing and assembly costs. Since chimney caps are an item for which a consumer is not likely to spend much money, low manufacturing and assembly costs are an important feature in cap design.
U.S. Pat. No. 538,366 to Cooper was an early design for a chimney cap made from arched pieces of sheetmetal. It was designed to be mounted permanently on a chimney rather than on a removable base and it was made from a minimum of four parts. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,191,948, 2,676,529 and 3,369,475, all issued to Artis, show an effort to reduce the number of parts used in constructing a chimney cap. Despite several design changes, the Artis cap, as illustrated in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,369,475 still required at least four pieces and its design, although arch-shaped, leads to abrupt changes in the upward movement of smoke and gases from the chimney.
The chimney cap described in this application overcomes both the problems of decreasing manufacturing and assembly costs and of reducing the degree of restriction of the smoke and gas coming from the chimney.